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VG in Good jacket. Size: 32 cm.; Dust jacket condition: Good. Wear and tear to jacket. Massive book. Due to weight, no foreign orders or domestic priority shipments accepted without prior arrangement as to shipping costs, which will exceed our usual rates. Spanish/English text. From the Foreword: This year Smurfit. Carton y Papel de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. presents Chapultepec, the sixteenth book of its CPM collection (Culture and Past of Mexico). This program of cultural promotion consists in the publication of unique, non-commercial books, profusely illustrated, which present different aspects of Mexico's rich historical and artistical heritage. Through this program we try to contribute to the promotion of our country's cultural values. Within the CPM program, which started in 1972 by presenting different aspects of the country's cultural wealth, we have published sixteen titles which cover from the Pre-hispanic era up to our days. This book in particular distinguishes itself from previous editions, because instead of dealing with *an event, an era or a person, it refers to a very important site, loved by everyone. Chapultepec, forest and castle, is a site which has lived through man's history in Mexico. Its name in nahuatl means "Grasshopper Hill" (Chapul--the abbreviation of chapulin [grasshopper]--and tepetl--locative which refers to hill). It does not cease to intrigue us why our ancestors chose the name of the insect which visits us every year at the end of the rainy season to designate this sacred place. The name also extended to designate the exuberant forest with multiple water springs, that for centuries supplied water to Mexico Tenochtitlan. From the top of the hill there is an extraordinary view of the City and the Valley of Mexico, a sight which not only surpasses the immense trees, but also the numerous skyscrapers which progress has brought along. This rocky promontory evokes our history from the time previous to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, continuing with the viceroys' recreational grounds; the first castle in America; the Heroic Military Academy; Maximilian's short-lived empire; Porfirio Diaz' Republic, followed by the revolutionary governments, until it reached its current status as National Museum of History. President Lazaro Cardenas gave it to the people in 1939, to install there the National Museum of History. However, neither Cardenas nor the presidents who have succeeded him, abandoned Chapultepec, because when they moved the presidential residence to Los Pinos--the old Tacubaya ranch of "La Hormiga" which bordered the aztec's magic forest--physically and ecologically, its gardens today form part of Chapultepec. However, Chapultepec's role goes beyond the historical site. Today it is a recreational site for the thousands of persons of all ages who visit it daily. It also has seven very important museums which play an eminently educational function. Aside from having the most important zoo in Mexico, Chapultepec offers the visitor a large park with mechanical games, two lakes for rowing, restaurants, fountains, spectacular monuments and, above all, many, many trees, flowers and lawns. The ancient forest--with less foliage today than it had some 40 or 50 years ago, but still very beautiful--is part of a huge complex of gardens and trees; new sections, which previously had been barren hills with some old, crooked pepper-trees, have been added to the park. Nowadays, a walk through Chapultepec bears no resemblance with those days when carriages and "charros" rode their fine horses and showed off their best attires. Today, we don't see the luxurious automobiles which every Sunday drove slowly through its avenues. Chapultepec now belongs to everyone, and people enjoy it as their own. Happiness abounds; there are picnics, children's parties and races, aside from an avalanche of visitors, young and old, local and foreign, who continuously go up the ramp to the Castle, to enjoy and admire the...